Alberich's seizure of the Rhine gold, as depicted in scene 1 of the 1876 production
Librettist
Richard Wagner
Language
German
Based on
Nordic and German legends
Premiere
22 September 1869 (1869-09-22)
National Theatre Munich
Das Rheingold (pronunciationⓘ; The Rhinegold), WWV 86A, is the first of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, on 13 August 1876.
Wagner wrote the Ring librettos in reverse order, so that Das Rheingold was the last of the texts to be written; it was, however, the first to be set to music. The score was completed in 1854, but Wagner was unwilling to sanction its performance until the whole cycle was complete; he worked intermittently on this music until 1874. The 1869 Munich premiere of Das Rheingold was staged, much against Wagner's wishes, on the orders of his patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Following its 1876 Bayreuth premiere, the Ring cycle was introduced into the worldwide repertory, with performances in all the main opera houses, in which it has remained a regular and popular fixture.
In his 1851 essay Opera and Drama, Wagner had set out new principles as to how music dramas should be constructed, under which the conventional forms of opera (arias, ensembles, choruses) were rejected. Rather than providing word-settings, the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind the work, by using a system of recurring leitmotifs to represent people, ideas and situations. Das Rheingold was Wagner's first work that adopted these principles, and his most rigid adherence to them, despite a few deviations – the Rhinemaidens frequently sing in ensemble.
As the "preliminary evening" within the cycle, Das Rheingold gives the background to the events that drive the main dramas of the cycle. It recounts Alberich's theft of the Rhine gold after his renunciation of love; his fashioning of the all-powerful ring from the gold and his enslavement of the Nibelungs; Wotan's seizure of the gold and the ring, to pay his debt to the giants who have built his fortress Valhalla; Alberich's curse on the ring and its possessors; Erda's warning to Wotan to forsake the ring; the early manifestation of the curse's power after Wotan yields the ring to the giants; and the gods' uneasy entry into Valhalla, under the shadow of their impending doom.
DasRheingold (pronunciation; The Rhinegold), WWV 86A, is the first of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen...
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1874. The four parts that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence: DasRheingold (The Rhinegold) Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Siegfried Götterdämmerung...
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over the traditional operatic tasks of the chorus". Beginning with DasRheingold (1853–54), the principles of Gesamtkunstwerk became the basis of all...
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found in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Wagner's DasRheingold. Though originally set to an Italian libretto, Orfeo ed Euridice owes...
structure of the piece." In the fourth scene of Richard Wagner’s opera DasRheingold, the earth Goddess Erda prophesies the impending doom of the Gods. Wagner's...
Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung") feature pedal notes. The prelude to DasRheingold features an E♭ pedal tone in the bass for 162 bars: Robert Donington...
Wagner's objections, that the premieres of the two completed Ring operas, DasRheingold and Die Walküre, be given at once, in Munich, rather than as part of...
Terrence Malick DasRheingold Norbit 2007 Brian Robbins "Ride of the Valkyries" Bronson 2008 Nicolas Winding Refn Götterdämmerung, DasRheingold The Curious...
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the famous Anvil Chorus Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen in DasRheingold in scene 3, using 18 anvils tuned in F in three octaves, and Siegfried...
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